Jesus Christ is citing Numbers 21, where God punishes Israel with fiery serpents for their sin. And Jehovah will save Israel through a graven serpent lifted up. By citing Numbers 21 and using this language, Jesus is teaching us that Numbers 21 is a figure of sin and salvation. And the graven serpent itself is a type of his person and work.
The simplicity that is in Christ stands here contrasted with the subtilty of the serpent: and the instance given of the serpent’s subtilty in his beguiling Eve illustrates what is meant by the simplicity which is opposed to it. In that first temptation, all on the part of God was abundantly simple; the command, not to eat of the tree, with the warning, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” was, in fact, simplicity itself. On the other hand, the subtilty of the tempter is apparent in the complex and manifold pleading which he holds with Eve. God has but one argument against eating; Satan has many for it; and there is no surer sign of subtilty than the giving of many reasons for what a single good one would better justify and explain.
“Forsaking our own mercies.” How are they our own? Not ours in possession, for we are forsaking them, but they are our own mercies that we have a right to—mercies freely offered to us of God in Christ Jesus, in his blessed gospel. It is thus your own Christ that you neglect. He is in this sense your own in the free offer of God; your own Saviour, the Christ whom God is holding forth and giving in his gospel to you.
An event had taken place at Jerusalem, in which every son of Adam on the wide surface of the earth was interested, which was to bring unnumbered multitudes to Heaven, and thus greatly to influence the records of eternity. And Christ, looking steadfastly upon the faces of his chosen followers, and thinking of the multitude of sinners which then thronged this miserable world, and of the countless generations then unborn, who afterwards were to be blessed by his salvation, uttered these most emphatic words: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.”
These words occur in the course of the apostle’s address in the synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia. Wherever the Jews were scattered within or without the bounds of the Roman Empire, it was their desire to cleave fast to one another, and so, wherever they were sufficiently numerous to have a public place of worship, they had it, and met there on the Sabbath day for the reading of the law. From among the nations, there were those that joined themselves to them, laying hold of the skirt of him that was a Jew, saying, “We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” These were by the Jews distinguished from the other Gentiles, as those that feared God, and we find that in this synagogue there were present such proselytes from among the Gentiles, along with those that were Jews by descent. To both classes, the apostle addresses himself, and to each class, he declares the good news of salvation.
The great central truth of the religion of sinners relates to the person, character, work, sufferings, offices, and glory of Jesus Christ. These are vital in Christianity. As one is sound or corrupt here, so is he substantially right or wrong in the main. Both now and in the Last Day, the great question in determining character and destiny is the same: “What think ye of Christ?” (Matt. 22:42).
Improve the comforts of religion for promoting holiness. The religion of Jesus is highly comfortable—it exhibits to a sinful creature a redeeming God—as the God of all consolation—the Saviour, as the consolation of Israel—the Spirit, as the spirit of gladness—the blessings of grace, as wells of salvation, from which we may draw water with joy. Realizing these truths by that divine principle which makes future things present, and unseen things visible, and taking them home to ourselves, we are filled with joy and peace, and the joy of the Lord is our strength.
Men hear so much regarding pardon that, by a strange fallacy, they are prone to conclude that they are pardoned. They hear so much of a Saviour that they hasten to the soothing conclusion that they are saved. It is as if a dying man were to conclude that he is not dying, merely because he hears of life, or a beggar that he is not starving, merely because he hears of bread. And so in regard to faith.
During the middle part of last century, the parish of Resolis was blessed with one of the most eminently useful and laborious ministers that the church of Christ has ever seen. When the name of Mr. Hector M’Phail meets the eye of the more northern reader, it will recall to memory not a few of those striking anecdotes current among the older inhabitants of the district in which his labours were best known, and which may be stated generally as lying along the shores of the Beauly and Cromarty Firths.
In further illustrating the interesting fact stated in the text, viz., that the sufferings of Messiah, and the glories which resulted from his sufferings, are a subject which strongly engages the attention of angels, it may be proper in the first place, to advert shortly to some things respecting the nature, character, and employments of these celestial spirits; and then, in the second place, to inquire what in the mysteries of redemption, as a manifestation of divine glory, makes the subject so deeply interesting to angels.
